The United States is set to soon get its first solar-powered canal

““Cows, cars and couches always end up in the canal somehow,” Lepley said.

These requirements — plus the additional steel and concrete materials — make these systems more expensive and technically complex than conventional, ground-mounted solar panels on trackers.

Together with George Cairo Engineering, the engineer responsible for the Casa Blanca Canal solar project, Tectonius evaluated a number of designs for the canal’s fixtures.“We looked at steel usage, concrete usage, solar panel costs, wind lift and weight, energy production and access,” Lepley said. Engineers ultimately settled on a patented, modular, prefabricated design that makes it safe to build over flowing water without impeding channel flow or access.

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The long, narrow solar panel structure will wind along the canal line and connect to the local electricity distribution grid every year. 1,000 feet or one megawatt.

Generally speaking, Lepley said the capital cost of a canal solar installation is about twice that of a land-based solar installation due to the cost of the steel and foundations needed to support it. Photovoltaics panels over the canal. Lepley did not disclose the project’s cost per megawatt-hour, but said his models and lab data suggest that in hot, dry environments, canal-based solar power is““more valuable” than land-based solar power, which can gradually reduce the higher upfront capital costs.

““The solar power plant in the canals allows for the production of more energy in relation to the land area, ensures cleaner water, lower losses in energy transmission and a significant reduction in evaporation,” he said.

Lepley’s research revealed 1.9 percent increase in energy in solar power generation due to the reduction in infrared radiation reflected from the ground. This increase is equivalent, on a system-wide scale, 21 gigawatt-hours of electricity or2.3 million a year, according to the engineer.

Thanks to this plan,“We passed these savings on to taxpayers and prevented a huge number of CON₂ from the warming of our atmosphere, and all without destroying vast swaths of the Sonoran Desert.”

While this imagined market is still in its pilot phase, the math suggests the potential is much greater. Embracing the entire 8,000 Kilometers of canals and waterways managed by the Bureau of Reclamation equipped with solar panels could generate more than 25 gigawatts of renewable energy and reduce water evaporation by tens of billions of gallons, according to a letter sent to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Commissioner Camille Touton’s office 2023 by a coalition consisting of over 100 climate and environmental groups.

The Casa Blanca project, scheduled to be connected to the distribution grid by the end of summer, will provide the United States with its first taste of this new clean energy option.

This article was originally published by Canary Media, an independent, nonprofit newsroom focused on the clean energy transition and solutions to the climate crisis. It is reprinted here with express permission.